Almost no one has seen this science fiction film, but Tarantino considers it a masterpiece

John Carpenter is one of the most popular horror film directors. Viewers know this master of horror best from the legendary The Thing, Halloween and Escape from New York. But one early Carpenter film remains criminally underrated.

The director released his first feature film in 1974. Carpenter not only directed and wrote the script for Dark Star, but also served as composer and producer on the project.

The film about four space pilots confronted with an unknown cosmic evil anticipated the plot of Alien by five years, but viewers didn’t notice.

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“Dark Star” didn’t become a cult film upon its release; fans only realized the true value of this cosmic horror decades later.

Despite its cult status, Carpenter’s debut film remains remarkably unpopular. Quentin Tarantino himself recently defended Dark Star , calling the low-budget film a true 1970s masterpiece and a near-perfect space movie.

Tarantino loves to promote little-known films from the 60s and 70s, and this time the critics agreed with his high rating.

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“Dark Star” features quite a decent 72% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes is a good result for a film that only Tarantino and a handful of dedicated Carpenter fans have heard of.

In Russia “Dark Star” there are clearly not enough stars from the sky. On Kinopoisk it was reviewed by a little over three thousand people, which only brought the debut of the cult director 6.6 points.